Early prehistoric evidence

Posted Tue, 09/06/2016 - 12:40

Since Wessex Archaeology started investigating this site in early 2015, we have found a significant amount of evidence for prehistoric activity across the site. This includes several worked flints, some of which date to the Mesolithic (8500-4000 BC) and Neolithic (4000-2400 BC), indicating a level of human interaction with the landscape some 10,000 years ago.

The remains of a Bronze Age (2200–700 BC) roundhouse was discovered on top of a hill on the southern edge of the site. This was in the form of the circular stone footings on which the timber structure would have rested. A feature in the centre of the house contained a large amount of Trevisker Ware pottery, a Middle Bronze Age style common in the south-west of England. The pieces represent large cooking pots decorated with fingertip and fingernail impressions, with some having deeply incised V-shaped motifs and unusual lug handles.

Other finds of this date included Bronze Age cremation graves, some of which were grouped together in a ‘cemetery’. The cremated remains had been buried in a total of 15 pottery urns. Such a collection of urns is very rare for this part of the country, so these burials provide an important opportunity to learn how our ancestors here treated their dead several millennia ago.

A large concentration of over 400 postholes and pits was found on another part of the site. Postholes indicate that there were originally structures in place, so these features suggest that there must have been several phases of settlement, stretching over a long period of time. The concentration was found on low ground to the west of an old river channel. We can assume that the focus of activity was based on the presence of water. We are currently analysing the evidence from our excavations to try and confirm what activities were being carried out here during the Bronze Age period.

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